Griffin's Destiny

an angle, away from the advancing line. Ashinji rushed the fallen man, prepared to strike again, but the human lay sprawled in the churned earth, unmoving. A quick scan told Ashinji the man had been knocked senseless. He lowered his sword.

Even in war, even on a human, I’ll not commit murder.

He looked around for the horse. Like all good war mounts, the animal had ceased running when it sensed its rider had fallen. It stood a spear’s throw away, tail swishing. Off to his left, the first Soldaran infantry units rushed past, ignoring him.

Sheathing his sword, Ashinji approached with caution. The horse, catching his unfamiliar scent, tossed its head and whinnied.

“Easy, now. Easy,” Ashinji murmured in Soldaran. He reached out and touched the horse’s simple mind, soothing it, reassuring it as to his benign intentions. The animal lowered its head, ears drooping. When he stepped up and took hold of its reins, then swung himself into the saddle, it offered no resistance.

Ashinji sat still for a few heartbeats, extending his magical sense outward in search of any clue as to which direction Sonoe had gone. He felt nothing. Logic told him she would have followed the Alasiri forces; after all, the creature that controlled her still needed to keep up its charade, at least until it deemed the time had come to execute its spell. He had no idea when that would be, so Ashinji knew he needed to find the former Kirian, and soon, before he lost all chance to stop her.

Since the creature now appeared immune to the compulsion exerted by speaking its true name, Ashinji would have to come up with some other way of capturing it.

But how , he thought. With no formal training, he had only his own inborn Talent and instincts to guide him.

I have to think of something…Goddess help me!

He drummed his heels against the horse’s flanks and set off at a gallop after the Soldarans.

Conflagration and Deliverance

Ashinji caught up with the lead Soldaran infantry units and galloped alongside, just out of arrow range. He did not know what the humans saw when they looked his way-a riderless cavalry horse, perhaps-but whatever they saw, none of them raised any alarm. They remained totally focused on the pursuit of Lord Sen and his troops. Ashinji tried not to think about the sheer vastness of the Soldaran force now invading the valley; he had to concentrate on finding and stopping the thing that had once been Sonoe.

The vanguard of the invading army would soon reach Tono Castle where Prince Raidan waited to spring his trap. Ashinji guessed Sonoe would make her move then.

As Sen’s force drew near, sharp blasts from horns atop the castle walls signaled that those within the fortress stood ready. Ashinji hauled back on the reins and his mount skidded to a stop. Twisting first one way, then the other, he scanned the landscape.

Damn it, where is she?

Sen had wheeled around to face the charging Soldarans.

Any moment now, the trap would be sprung.

The human foot soldiers whooped and brandished their weapons as they closed in. The cavalry couched their spears and bent low for the final charge.

From atop the highest battlement of the castle, a single, sustained horn blast sounded. A heartbeat later, massive fireballs, some blue, others white, rained down from the rocky ridgelines. They fell amongst the Soldarans and detonated with terrible force, flinging the bodies of men and horses high into the air. The humans’ cries of triumph morphed into screams of pain and terror.

At the same time, the elven forces hidden among the crags to either side of the castle poured down the slopes in a headlong plunge to the valley floor. The archers reached the flats first and they immediately launched a deadly hail of arrows into the flanks of the invaders. Ashinji narrowly missed getting skewered as he flung himself off the horse to the ground. Instinctively, he threw up a protective magical shield around him, just in time to deflect another rain of arrows. He could do nothing for the horse. It went down in a tangle of thrashing limbs, pierced by at least a half-dozen shafts.

I’ve no training for this! Ashinji thought as he realized he had no idea how to maintain the protective shield for longer than a heartbeat or two. Fear began to scratch at the back of his mind, but he pushed it aside.

No! I can’t let anything distract me!

The elven forces were almost upon him, and the Soldarans had re-organized and braced themselves to meet the new threat.

Lord Sen charged just as the massive gates of the castle swung open to allow the troops within to rush out. Simultaneously, the portion of the elven army hidden at the rear of the fortress streamed to the front on either side.

The Soldarans were surrounded.

Ashinji’s heart sank.

Goddess, we’re so badly outnumbered! How are we ever going to drive the Soldarans out?

Despite the fact that the elves’ plan had worked to perfection, Ashinji feared only a miracle could save them now.

“Out of the way, mage!” a voice screamed. Ashinji just had time to jump aside as a rider swept past him, and then the charging elven foot soldiers overtook him. He stood rooted in place as they surged by. Some of them cursed him for being in the way, others yelled at him to take cover. A second officer rode by and ordered him to blast the enemy with a fireball.

Goddess! They really do think I’m one of the mages!

The lines met and clashed with a great roar.

Ashinji fell back, uncertain what to do. His soldier’s instincts ordered him to join the fight, but just then, his magical sense caught a faint tingle, a whiff of what he had been searching for.

He looked toward the castle and knew she stood there, on the wall below the western tower. A heartbeat later, he felt a powerful stirring, like a vortex, drawing energy toward it from the surrounding aether.

Sonoe…Shiura…is opening the Void! I’m too late!

“Noooo!” he screamed.

A great tearing sound echoed against the walls of the castle, like the very fabric of the universe had ripped asunder. A crack like a lightning bolt appeared in the air above the struggling armies, except it was the absence of light, rather than the presence, that defined it. An unnatural wind swept down the valley, picking up strength with each passing moment. It lifted streamers of debris and sent them whirling into the slowly expanding gash of darkness.

At first, the men and women locked in battle below seemed not to notice, but as the violence of the wind increased, more and more of them stopped to cry out and point overhead. Weapons dropped and human and elven voices swelled together in a chorus of confusion and fear.

I’ve got to get up there now!